When you want to end your marriage, your spouse must be formally notified that you have petitioned for divorce. This is frequently a problem when one spouse has abandoned the other or has left town. If you do not know where your husband or wife is, it is very difficult for you to provide them with notice that you are trying to divorce them. This can make divorces take longer and become more complicated. It can also be more costly to try to track down a missing spouse and to officially serve them with divorce papers.
There is, however, an alternative that may prove very helpful for many couples who are trapped in marriages they no longer wish to be in: a New York judge recently ruled that a husband could be served with divorce papers through his Facebook account.
Changing rules regarding service of process are good news for people who want to end a marriage and can’t find the physical address of their soon-to-be ex. However, although the rules are shifting, it still remains fundamentally true that you must ensure your spouse is notified about the divorce in order to move forward with proceedings to end your marriage.
A New York City divorce attorney at Vangorodska Law Firm can provide you with legal assistance and advice in helping you to understand the rules for filing for divorce and providing required notice. Our attorneys will be there at every step of the way to keep your case moving forward swiftly and to protect your rights as your marriage ends.
Service of Process on Facebook
Personal delivery of divorce papers to a defendant is the standard method, or method of first resort, for providing notice when a petition for divorce is filed. Personal delivery of divorce papers ensures that the spouse is made aware that his or her husband or wife has formally petitioned for a marriage to end. This ensures the defendant has the opportunity to respond.
Personal delivery is impractical when a process server cannot gain access to the spouse who is being served with divorce papers, either because that person’s whereabouts are not known or for other practical reasons. New York Domestic Relations Code § 232 provides the opportunity for plaintiffs filing for divorce to request permission to use an alternative method of service of process permitted under the Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR).
A variety of alternative methods of service, or “substitute service” have been identified, including giving the papers to someone of a suitable age at the defendant’s home or business; affixing the summons to the door of the spouse’s business or home; or mailing the summons to the last known address of the defendant’s home or workplace. Even publication in a designated newspaper has been accepted as an alternative method of service if there are no other prescribed methods of service that can be used.
To allow for flexibility and maximize the chances that the defendant will actually be served, there has been increasing acceptance of the use of online contacts to provide someone with notification that a divorce has been filed. Ten years ago, courts first began to allow a summons to be served via email in what was considered, at the time, to be a “cutting edge development.” Now, email has become a standard means of communication and service via email is largely accepted.
As Social Media is a newer development, the rules are not yet clear on whether this is an acceptable means of service in most jurisdictions or not. In New York, the court has now ruled that Facebook and other social media sites may be acceptable to notify someone that divorce has been filed.
In Baidoo v. Blood-Dzraku (N.Y. Mar. 27, 2015), the court held that “plaintiff has a compelling reason to make Facebook the sole, rather than the supplemental, means of service, with the court satisfied that it is a method reasonably calculated to give defendant notice that he is being sued for divorce.”
This ruling opens the door for more divorcing individuals to use Facebook and similar services to provide notice. Because the acceptability of service via Facebook may differ on a case-by-case basis, it is important for anyone who is filing for divorce to talk to an attorney about what their obligations are.
Vangorodska Law Firm will help you to get your divorce started and to move forward as quickly as possible with the process. Give us a call today to learn more.